A Brief Overview of Gerhard Kegler’s Education and Military Background

1898 – 1986 (Chart II a – II)

On January 26, 1898, Gerhard Kegler was born in Grünewald, Pomerania (Province of Germany until 1945). Posts on his three older siblings Marie, Günther, and Gertrud can be found in the archives of this blog. They show how the children of Pastor Carl Kegler and his wife Elisabeth had a happy childhood in the small Pomeranian community of Grünewald. Also the third chapter of the P. and G. Klopp Story has more information on the Kegler family background, which therefore need not be repeated here. Like his brother Günther, Gerhard began his military career as a cadet in 1908. The outline of his comet-like rise in the ranks of the German army follows below.

• 1904 -1908 Elementary School at Grünewald
• 1908 – 1914 Military Academy at Plön
• 1914 – 1917 Military Academy at Groß-Lichterfelde
• March 1, 1917 Officer Cadet at the 149th Infantry Regiment in Schneidemühl
• September 1917 On the Western Front at Champagne and Argonne
• November 1, 1917 Lieutenant
• 1918 Participated in the last major German offensive of World War I
• 1919 – 1920 Border Patrol at the section between Schneidemühl and Bromberg
• End of November 1920  Transfer to the 4th infantry regiment of the newly created army, which was limited by the Treaty of Versailles to 100,000 men
• 1921 – 1922 Officer’s training in Munich
• 1924 Teacher at the Officer’s Sports Training School in Berlin
• 1925 Promoted to the rank of first lieutenant
• 1926 – 1929 Trainer and Sports Teacher at the Infantry School in Dresden
• 1929 – 1933 Leader of military courses for officers’ trainees in Berlin and Dresden
• March 1, 1933 Advanced to the rank of captain
• 1933 – 1934 In charge of the 11th Infantry Regiment 9 at Spandau
• 1934 – 1938 In charge of the 3rd MG Battalion 8 at Züllichau
• 1937 Promoted to the rank of major
• 1938 Teacher at the Military Academy in Munich
• 1939 At the beginning of World War II Battalion commander in the Infantry Regiment 282 of the 98th Division at the Western Front
• 1940 Commander of Infantry Battalion in Training at Kreuznach; front-line duty in the attack on the French Maginot line in the Vosges Mountains
• November 1, 1940 Commander of the Infantry Regiment  27 and promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel
• 1941 – 1944 Invasion of the Soviet Union
• February 1942 Promoted to the rank of colonel
• October 1, 1944 Promoted to the rank of major-general

Gerhard Kegler on a Visit at Gutfelde 1944 (the tall person in the middle)

In February 1945, Gerhard Kegler was condemned to death after being court-martialed for disobeying Himmler’s orders to defend the town of Landsberg on the River Warthe. The following posts will deal with the circumstances leading up to this terror verdict and will hopefully contribute to dispel the myth about all German officers blindly following the Nazi Regime without any moral backbone.

To be continued